Chapter 7
CHAPTER 7
AXL
“ Y ou asshole,” Billie said, turning to me. A glare replaced her smile.
“What?” I was totally confused. “I thought you wanted me to put on pants. I did.”
“I don’t give a shit about your pants,” she said. She pointed a finger out the shutters at the Jeep. “ You almost drove me off the road tonight. I can’t believe it was you in that obnoxious yellow car.”
“I’m sorry, what?” Things had taken a turn. I was supposed to charm her with my strong, helpful arms and get her bundled up for the drive home. What was going on?
“You came up on me super-fast, then you swerved a bunch like a maniac.” She held her hands up as if holding a steering wheel.
I thought back through the drive, remembering being stuck behind a slow-ass car on the logging road. “Wait. That was you on the road in front of me? Before Four Clover Farm?”
“Yes!” she shouted. “Yes, it was you!”
“Ahhhhh, okay, yeah,” I said, quickly piecing together how this all went down. After leaving Angel at the rest stop, I stopped at a gas station. I grabbed a Big Gulp and turned on Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy . I sucked down at least forty ounces of Red Bull on that drive, listening to the sweet crooning of Robert Plant. Zeppelin was one of the only lessons, or gifts, my father gave me that wasn’t total bullshit. “I remember now. I needed to get home. I was in a hurry. I’m sorry.”
“For your bubble bath?” she said.
“No.”
“What, you needed to come home and clean the kitchen? Binge-watch a show? Find your dog?”
“No. Cam was with me in the car. Actually … ” I hesitated and then decided to tell her the truth. What did I care. “I had to pee.”
“Oh.” She looked stunned.
“I knew it was going to snow. I didn’t want to pull over, so I drove with urgency. What do you kids say, TMO?”
“TMI,” she said. “And you aren’t that old.”
“I’m older than you.” I had at least ten years on Billie, maybe more. It was hard to tell.
She exhaled and glared. “You drove like a menace. You could have killed me,” she said, standing with her arms crossed. Anger rolled off her in hot waves. Truth be told, it was more than a little bit of a turn-on. She was like this fiery little bird, and I wondered what else pushed her hot buttons.
I shoved my hands in my jeans to cover my hardening cock.
“You were in no danger,” I said, though my dick was in danger of busting out of my pants. “I am a very disciplined driver. I wasn’t tailgating. I had plenty of room. The margin of error was very small, and my confidence was high. I was nowhere close to hitting you.”
“Is that so? The margin of error for you was small? Who talks like that?”
“I do.”
“What’s wrong with you?”
“I land planes on super small runways for a living. Trust me. I know exactly how much space is around me at all times. Passing a car on the road to Smoke River is a cakewalk.”
“You are a pilot?”
“Yep.”
She opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but stopped. Her chin raised, her wavy black hair fell just below her shoulders in soft curls. The reflecting snow outside filled the room with an ethereal blue light. Billie’s chest rose and fell, and I couldn’t help but wonder what the rest of her skin looked like under her hoodie.
My traitorous dick pulsed. Damn. I needed a cold shower or to jack off.
“So that’s your excuse?” she said. “You had plenty of room?”
“Well, yeah.” I nodded, hands still in my pockets. “I like to think of it as more of an explanation.”
“All pilots are good drivers?”
“Yeah, well good pilots are, and I’m a good pilot. It’s like a personality trait. We take machines seriously.”
She laughed. “And women don’t?”
“Easy there,” I said, taking a step back. “Who said anything about women? I most definitely did not.” My plan to charm her by carrying her heavy bags through the snow seemed deeply flawed. Maybe playing the chivalry card was a mistake. Perhaps I needed to get her so mad she just left in a rage. Nothing else seemed to be working. I needed to try something else before she decked me, or I lost control and leaned down and kissed her beautiful mouth.
“Well, I am just surprised,” I said, shrugging. “I mean, you say you grew up here, but have you always been afraid of driving in the snow?” I was being a total dick. This had to do it. She was going to lose her shit and leave.
“I know how to drive in the snow.” She rolled her eyes. “And what do you mean, I say I grew up here.” She did little air quotes.
I failed to kill her with kindness. It was time to test her temper.
“I don’t know,” I shrugged, trying to play it off. “Maybe you should show me an ID. How do I know you are who you say you are?”
“Because it would be insane to just show up here and invade the kitchen.” She looked totally confused by my line of questioning.
“You are making my point for me.” I crossed my arms. Changing tactics seemed to be working. She looked irritated, and miraculously, my hard-on was retreating — a bit. Thank God. I needed to get over my fiery minx kink.
“Well, that’s fine,” she said, her words coming out like tight punches. “I’ll show you ID. You show me the lease. Deal?”
“Deal.”
She exhaled and pulled a wallet from the front pocket of her sweatshirt. She handed me her ID. In return, I reached into my back pocket and handed her the lease.
“Careful with that,” I said, handing her the paper. “That’s a legally binding document.”
“I know what a lease is,” she said, holding a hand in the air. She read it while I scanned her ID.
Billie Jane Prescott. Born December fifteenth. Her birthday wasn’t far away. She was twenty-seven years old. I knew it. I had fifteen years on her at forty-three. She was young and hot. She was five-foot-six. I called bullshit. She was barely five-foot-five. At six-four, I was almost a foot taller.
She looked up at me, her expression softening. “That is my grandmother’s signature.”
“And you are an organ donor who lies about her height.”
She rolled her eyes.
I gave her back her ID, and she handed me the lease. For a moment, we said nothing.
“I know you say you knew the ‘margin of error’ was low when you passed me.” She repeated air quotes again. It was so cute. “But you could have hurt yourself, Cam, or me tonight.” She slipped her wallet back into her hoodie. Cam lifted her head from the couch at the mention of her name.
Billie didn’t sound angry anymore. In fact, she seemed sad. I felt a little bad about messing with her. “She likes you,” I said, nodding at my dog. “She doesn’t like just everybody.”
Billie shrugged and looked up at me with those big brown doe-eyes. “I’m just really tired. I drove, like, fourteen hours from Seattle today?”
“Why didn’t you fly?” I asked .
“I just didn’t.” She exhaled.
“You drove fourteen hours instead of flying three.”
“I don’t have to explain myself to you, but I not only know snow, I know how to drive in the snow. I know how to drive well. The fact is … ” She paused and inhaled.
“The fact is what?”
Her cheeks flushed. She wrinkled her nose. “Fine,” she blurted. “I promised my mother I wouldn’t speed.”
I paused as her words sunk in before I burst out laughing.
“Stop it,” she said.
“No, I’m sorry. That’s just so adorable.”
“What? I happen to have a mother who loves me, and I promised her I wouldn’t speed, and I shouldn’t have to apologize for that.”
“Totally,” I said, still chortling. “I mean, you promised your mom. Makes sense.”
“You are infuriating,” she said.
“I have been told that before.”
Glaring at me, she opened her mouth and then clamped it shut before speaking.
“Nope.” She shook her head as if talking to herself. “I’m not going to go there. Not going to do it.”
“What?” I asked.
“What, what?” She shrugged.
“You clearly want to say something. Spit it out.”
“I don’t have anything to say.”
“But you do. You opened your mouth. You said, ‘Nope, I’m not going to go there.’ I think this is your inside voice coming outside — ”
“Who was that woman at the rest stop?” she blurted, rocking forward on her toes. She pointed a finger at my chest. “I saw you. I saw you with her.”
I tried to keep my expression neutral. Of course, Angel would somehow continue to fuck up my life. “She’s no one.”
“She didn’t seem like no one . She seemed like she knew you quite well.”
“Well, she is just somebody I used to know. ”
Billie wrinkled her nose. “Did you just quote the band Gotye?”
“I don’t know who the band Gotye is.”
“They have a song with that title,” she said, her tone condescending.
“If you say so. I’m what you’d call a classic rock guy.”
“Oh, you mean old guy music?”
“Ouch. So mean.” Honestly, the dig stung a bit, not that I cared. She was younger than me after all.
“I saw a woman yell at your obnoxious yellow Jeep. She threw dirt and rocks at your car. Yikes.” She mock-cringed.
“She did do that.” I nodded, remembering the way the goddamn pebbles rattled hitting the hood. I didn’t back up nearly fast enough.
“So, you are just a guy who lives in Smoke River and incites beautiful women — ”
“Oh, you thought she was beautiful?” I interrupted.
“Yeah.” She looked confused by my question.
“I’m just always super interested in what women think is beautiful. You know, I see a woman. I know she’s beautiful, but what do women think? That is the mystery.”
“Well, she’s beautiful,” Billie said. “I mean, she had this gorgeous red hair, and her face looked nice and proportional.”
“If you say so.”
“Oh, my God. Why am I answering your questions like they’re normal?” She balled her hands into fists and backed away from me. “Where are my keys? I should just unpack the truck and get out of here.” She patted her pockets and turned in a circle. “I just had them.”
Victory. I wanted her to leave, right? But then I glanced out the window at the falling snow, which showed no signs of stopping. I knew that we could unpack her truck, but the idea that anyone in Smoke River would be on the road tonight was a pipe dream.
I assessed the margin of error. It was very high. There was no room for mistakes on a night like tonight. It was dangerous out there. She couldn’t leave. Fuck me .
“Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot,” I said, rubbing my temple.
“You think?” she said, eyes darting around the room.
“I’m sure your keys are here. I’ll help you find them.”
“If I lost them, that is a big problem. It’s my gran’s special key chain, too. It’s a shooting star.” She sounded panicked, and for a moment, I worried she would cry. I did not want to see her cry.
“They aren’t lost.”
“Okay.” Her voice was soft. She stopped and clasped her arms, biting her lip. “I’m sure they are here.”
“Yes,” I said, keeping my voice low and calm. I scanned the room, seeing a glint of gold next to the oven. “They are right there, by the stove.”
She exhaled and darted to the kitchen, shoving the keys into her pocket. “Thank you,” she said. “I’m just a little rattled.”
“I know,” I said. I was rattled, too, but I wasn’t going to tell her that. “Your grandmother hired me to take care of this place. I can tell you love it here. Honestly, I do, too.”
She nodded and looked at me. I felt something pass between us, but couldn’t name it. It may have been the first wholly truthful thing we’d said to each other.
“So,” I said.
“So,” she repeated, her voice no longer shaking. If she’d been about to cry, the danger passed.
“So, should we unpack your truck then?”
She glanced out the window. “Yeah. It is snowing really hard.”
“We can get the truck emptied and figure the rest out tomorrow. Nobody is going anywhere in this snowstorm tonight.”
“I’m going out in that snowstorm,” she said.
“Not tonight,” I said. “I mean — ”
“No, not tonight, but in the morning, and you can’t tell me what to do,” she said, though her tone was playful. I liked it.
“That’s fair.”
“I need to get home to Denver tomorrow and help my mom pack up her house. I shouldn’t have driven out here. It was a mistake. ”
“How much shit, I mean beautiful items , of your mother’s are you planning to store in the barn?”
“As much as I want because it’s my family’s barn,” she sang.
“Your barn, which I lease,” I sang in return.
“For now,” she said, eyebrows dancing.
We both turned and stared out the window. She didn’t say a word. She stood beside me and glanced up from time to time. I didn’t speak either. I wasn’t sure of the score. It felt like a stalemate, though I considered her commitment to leaving in the morning a win.
I wanted my cabin back. I did not want to relocate for the winter. It was too disruptive. I also hadn’t realized how attached I was to this house. I had no intention of leaving one day before my lease ended. What was she going to do, drag me out? I glanced down at her tiny, tight body. I’d like to see her try.
“It wasn’t supposed to snow,” she said, her voice wistful.
“Says who?”
“My weather app.”
“Oh, darling. You grew up here. You know as much as I do that nobody can predict what happens with the weather at Smoke River.”
She rolled her eyes. “I did grow up here and don't call me, darling.”
I glanced back at the kitchen. “Weren’t you looking for some whiskey earlier?”
“Yes. I was going to make a hot toddy.”
“Nice,” I said. “Well, why don’t we get you a nip. We both warm up a bit, and I’ll help you unpack your truck. It’s the least I can do. The sooner we unpack it, the sooner you can get going in the morning.”
“Right,” she said, eyes fixed on the snow outside.
“It’s not that bad,” I lied, not to be an asshole, but to give her hope. “I’ll also shovel the drive in the morning. We’ll get you out of here.”
“You will?” She turned to face me. Her eyes brightened, and a smile lit up her face. “That’s a lot of work.”
“You saw the driveway. I don’t fuck around when I shovel snow.”
“It did look good. ”
“Let’s unpack, and I’ll make up the bedroom for you, too.” I pointed down the hall.
“I couldn’t,” she said. “Isn’t that where you sleep?” She looked a little uncomfortable with my offer.
I nodded at the couch by the fireplace. “It’s fine. I’ll sleep out here with Cam. I was going to build a fire after my bubble bath anyway.”
“The bath I interrupted. I’m sorry about that.” She bit her lip.
“It’s okay.” I paused. “I’m sorry I scared you on the drive.”
“You sure about tonight? You don’t have to give up your bed for me.”
“Well, now that I know you’re my landlord’s granddaughter, there is no way I’m relegating you to the couch.”
She nodded, her expression hard to read.
We walked into the kitchen, and I put a fresh kettle on the stove. The more I played nice, the more likely it was that Billie would change her mind about fighting me on my lease. The truth was, I had the money and the means to win, but I didn’t need the hassle. I wanted her to think happy thoughts about me and this cabin until I showed her the door. I’d help her unpack, bundle her up, and send her back down the mountain to Mom.
One night with this woman staying here, and I would send her home in the morning.
It was going to be so easy.